TBX3 enhances invasivness in PDAC

Cell-fate decisions and pluripotency are dependent on networks of key transcriptional regulators during early embryonic development. Intriguingly, those developmental pathways frequently become reactivated during cancer formation. Recently, we could show that TBX3 is dynamically expressed during specification of the mesendoderm lineages in differentiating embryonic stem cells (ESCs) in vitro. Forced TBX3 expression in murine ESCs promotes mesendoderm specification by directly activating key lineage specification factors and indirectly by enhancing paracrine Nodal/Smad2 signaling (Weidgang, Stem Cell Reports, 201…